eight-ball

See also: eightball and eight ball

English

Alternative forms

• 8 ball, eight ball

Etymology

eight +‎ ball

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

eight-ball (countable and uncountable, plural eight-balls)

1. (uncountable) A pocket billiards (pool) game played with sixteen balls (a cue ball and fifteen object balls) on a pool table with six pockets.
2. (countable) The billiard ball, almost always black, bearing the number eight.
3. (countable, slang) A portion of cocaine or methamphetamine weighing ¹⁄₈ of an ounce, or 3.5 grams.
   • 2003, House of Sand and Fog, 00:43:39:

     (a policeman confiding to a friend) ".. She had welts and bruises all over. So, one night we get called out there again, and I slip down their hallway and stuff two eight balls in his closet. Turns out he was on parole. He goes back to jail, she's safe, and I slept like a baby."

4. (countable, slang, ethnic slur) A black person.
   • 2005, “Creed, OK”, in Carnivàle, episode 17:

     When a white fellow gets in the ring with an eight ball the eight ball's got no chance. You see, 'cause they call boxing the sweet science. And that's where your colored just runs into trouble. That's just that science part.
     Yeah, but Joe Louis is a big 'un.

5. (countable, aviation, slang) A spherical attitude indicator.
   • 1960, John Marshall Eggleston, Sheldon Baron, Donald C. Cheatham, Fixed-base Simulation Study of a Pilot's Ability to Control a Winged-satellite Vehicle During High-drag Variable-lift Entries, page 11:

     The angle-of-attack error indicator, located to the right of the attitude "eight-ball," requires some explanation.

   • 2011, David A. Mindell, Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight, page 254:

     He kept his eyes outside, stole a few glances at the "eight ball" attitude indictors^[sic] inside, and relied on Irwin's callouts.

Derived terms

• behind the eight-ball
• Chinese eight-ball

Verb

eight-ball (third-person singular simple present eight-balls, present participle eight-balling, simple past and past participle eight-balled)

1. (pool, transitive) To outplay (an opponent) by potting all one's color balls and then the black (or eight-ball) without the opponent potting a single one.
   • 2008, Edward Keating, The Joy of Ex: A Novel:

     She whips me in the first game of pool, I do not even get a shot. Eight-balled from the break.
     “Have you been practising?” I ask my sister.
     “Some,” she says, “play again?”
     “One more.”
     My sister beats me at pool in public a second time. I claim some dignity back by potting two of my balls before Tammy sinks the black.

Coordinate terms

• nine-ball

Anagrams

• lightable